Life at IIMA – part 2 (with pictures) September 24, 2008
Posted by chitranshu in Personal.11 comments
It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog. Well, I recently transferred some pics I have taken here at IIMA from my cellphone to my laptop, so I decided to put them up through this post. Here we go:
Vishu the Vitruvian Man: Can you see the papers in his hand? Such papers or a book can always be found with every IIMA student at all times. Tells you how much we study, right? 
Vishu the Vitruvian Man
And btw, the hole he is standing in is one of numerous holes in buildings throughout the campus. That’s IIMA’s unique architectural style. This particular one is at the Dorm-25 entrance in the new campus.
Akshay at the famous Louis Kahn Plaza
Louis Kahn was the architect who designed the IIMA campus. The building in the background is the Vikram Sarabhai Library, flanked by the faculty wings and the old classrooms.
We do have our moments of fun
This was during preparations for T-Nite, an inter-section cultural festival held soon after a new batch joins IIMA
One fine day in class
This was during a break between classes. As you can see, IIMA guys look quite normal. 
A Prayaas to make a difference
Prayaas is an effort by IIMA to facilitate education for underprivileged children and give them the opportunity to attend ‘mainstream’ schools. Here is a pic of the Prayaas class in progress.
The New Campus
The new campus, with the classrooms on the right and the dorms on the left (behind the hedge)
The LKP at night
Vishu and I at the D25 circle
There are many other pics that others have taken, of the students, professors, events on campus, etc. However, I prefer putting up only the pics that I have taken up here.
And there is an issue that’s been on my mind for a few days. So the next post should come up some time soon…
Moving May 24, 2008
Posted by chitranshu in Personal.16 comments
If I thought the first half of May was eventful for me, the rest has been equally so, at least until now. I have moved to Chennai with my parents (my dad was transferred here last year). Yes, that’s right… I have left Mumbai after living there for more than 20 years. There are lots of memories, and a lot I can write about Mumbai, but I expect to go back to the city again and again, so I won’t get nostalgic about it.
And we are still settling down in our new house in Chennai, and I haven’t yet discovered enough about this city to write here.
By the way, I got a final call from IIM Ahmedabad, so I’ll be heading to WIMWI in a month’s time. 
The last two weeks… May 15, 2008
Posted by chitranshu in Personal, Travel.4 comments
… have been quite eventful, and I can see that some of you have been curious to know about my IIM results. So first things first, I got final calls from L I K and a waitlist in A. It was disappointing, but I guess I’ll just try to make the best of what I get.
And now about where have I been. Exactly 15 days ago, I was in the middle of an eventful ‘last day’ at office. All through that evening, I kept checking pagalguy for any updates on exactly what time the results would come. I finally slept thinking that they wouldn’t come until morning, but was woken up by a friend around 1 am who told me that IIMB had declared its results. I checked the site immediately, and after seeing the reject, it was some time before I could sleep again.
The next morning, I was supposed to leave for Delhi. I had already made this plan in advance, and decided not to change it even after discovering that the result would come on the same day. Around 10 am, when I was ready to leave, I saw that the IIMC result had been declared, and that I hadn’t made it there too. So, in an extremely disturbed state of mind, I left to catch my train. I was told about the other results on the phone, which were somewhat of a relief. However, I forgot to charge my cellphone and activate roaming on it, so it went off shortly after the train left Mumbai.
Anyway, I reached Delhi the next day, and just outside the station, I bought a local prepaid SIM, but it was not activated. I reached my friend’s house in Gurgaon, but could not open the door (he had told me how to open it in his absence). Finally, he had to come from office to let me in. After having a bath at his place, I went to the nearest Vodafone store and asked them to activate my local prepaid number and roaming on the Mumbai number, but only the former happened after about an hour (so the dealer I bought the SIM from was probably useless or a rogue). I managed to activate roaming on my Mumbai number only after 3 days.
Anyway, the next morning, I left with some friends to Nainital for the weekend. We hired a Scorpio and left around 8 in the morning, and reached Nainital by 5 that evening.
This was a restaurant a few kms before Haldwani, on the way to Nainital. By the time we reached Nainital, looked at hotels and finally settled into one, it was dark, so we could just go around for a walk on the Mall Road. The next morning, we went boating in Naini Lake, from where we took this pic:
And we also went up the Ropeway to Snow View, from where the Nanda Devi and other peaks can usually be seen, but were hidden by clouds that day. We took this pic of the entire lake from the ropeway:
We came back to Delhi late on Sunday night. On Monday morning, I left for Rajasthan to meet my cousins, starting with Jaipur. We only went out at night to some places within the city, so I did not go to Amber Fort etc. On Wednesday, I reached Ajmer, and went with my uncle to the famous dargah.
I was a little surprised to find that inspite of being a Muslim religious place, many rituals followed out there are similar to those in Hindu temples.
From Ajmer, I headed to Alwar. I passed Sariska on the way, and although I didn’t get to see any tigers, there were a few peacocks and nilgai by the road. And it had been raining in those parts for a few days before I reached there. I did not expect to see much in Alwar itself, but my aunt took me to an old palace which is now a museum.
On Friday, 9th May, I headed back to Gurgaon. The weekend was spent going around Delhi, and on Monday morning, I flew back to Mumbai. Here are some pics I took at the Red Fort:
There are lots of other pics, but all of them have my friends, relatives, my girlfriend or me grinning, so I cannot put them up here.
Anyway, a summary of the trip: I traveled a few hundred kilometres every day on 9 days out of 12 from 1st to 12th May. I traveled by train (from Mumbai to Delhi as well as the Delhi Metro), airplane, bus, car, autorickshaw (the usual ones as well as the shared tempos), cyclerickshaw, and if you include local trips in Nainital, then by boat and cable-car as well. One of my relatives said that my traveling resembled that of an ‘election campaign’.
So that, besides my natural laziness, explains why I took three days after coming back to write this post. I want to write more on other topics as well, but I’ll keep that for later. Right now, I am just keeping my fingers crossed for the big A.
Operation Bluestar March 30, 2008
Posted by chitranshu in History, Personal.5 comments
Two years ago, in my final year at IITB, when we were brainstorming for our hostel’s PAF that year, I came across an idea from a junior, on which he and I researched for some days, and came up with a complete story sans the actual dialogues. The story was of a Sikh general-turned-militant called Shabeg Singh (the story on this link is from a completely pro-Khalistan viewpoint, so we thought of narrating it from the viewpoint of the general who headed Operation Bluestar, and letting the audience interpret it as pro- or anti-). This story was rejected in favour of another script, which turned out to be a disaster. Since then, it has been known as the ‘Golden Temple’ idea.
Last year, after I had passed out, the idea was discussed again, but rejected in favour of a winning script on Vidarbha. Finally, this year, they decided to go ahead with the ‘Golden Temple’ idea, and I decided to go and watch it. The story was very different from what we had discussed two years ago. It was a broader story of whatever happened in Punjab in the run-up to Operation Bluestar, with no central character as such. But the main attraction of the entire PAF was the set of the Golden Temple constructed on the main stage.
Not just the Temple on the main stage, but the side stages and backdrops were also beautifully done, like this sugarcane field and the village fair below it.
And then, the PAF started. The first scene was the village fair, showing how peaceful Punjab was.
I also tried to take a couple of videos, but the quality from my cellphone wasn’t good. There were a few amazing Gatka sequences, and I was pleasantly surprised that students managed to do all that.
And then, the story moved forward. In between scene changes, I captured the main stage with lighting from different angles.
And with UV lights.
And finally, the PAF ended.
And now, for my opinion on it. As I have mentioned before, the story was broader than what was originally thought, with no central character. The acting and voice-overs left a lot to be desired, in comparison to one of the other PAFs, and also, for us oldies, in comparison with what we had seen in our times. The direction was also not good, as there were moments where we felt a scene was totally unnecessary or could have been done better. For example, there was a scene where some guys staged Bhagat Singh’s story in a streetplay, and then drew parallels between that and the problems faced by Sikhs in the 1970s and 80s. If they put that only to sing ‘Soora so pehchaniye’, they should have known that this song is an old Sikh song, not the work of Bhagat Singh or his comrades.
However, the sets and the choreography were excellent, and made up for these glitches. In the end, it won the Best PAF of the year, but I think that was only because there were none better this year. I doubt that this PAF (if done exactly the same way as it was done this year) could have beaten Deja-Vu in 2006.
But for now, congratulations to all my juniors who did this. H5 crax BEST PAF two years in a row.
Not the end… March 17, 2008
Posted by chitranshu in Career related stuff, Personal.11 comments
The results for the UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination – 2007 came today. I did not make it to the interview stage. And since I had decided that this was my last attempt (although I am eligible for two more), this is the end of the path which I have been following for the last three years.
However, there are other paths, other things to do. For example, I still have my IIM calls.
And everything else in my life is still the same.
P.S. I believe this failure is my failure, but I do have something to say about the whole process for the civil service exams. I shall write in detail about it later. Right now, I don’t want to make it sound like a case of ’sour grapes’.
